CYBER WARFARE

Recently, the government set up an expert committee under the National Cyber Security Coordinator to look into revelations that a Chinese technology company with links to China’s government had been monitoring Indian citizens and organisations.

United States (US) department of defence (DoD), exposed an information-stealing malware, Slothful Media, being used to launch cyberattacks against targets in India and other countries.

Cyberwarfare:

1. Cyberwarfare is a strategic competition conducted between adversaries in cyberspace which allows countries to conduct covert operations on a large scale, cheaply, and anonymously.

2. Cyberwarfare can occur in at least five different spaces — economic, societal, cultural/intellectual, military, and political.

3. Cyberattacks on financial institutions are very common in India and the US.

4.Intellectual property (IP) rights are another avenue of strategic competition.

5. Societally, sowing disinformation through social media disinformation is also cyberwarfare.

Vulnerabilities :

1. Cyberwarfare is both cheap and anonymous and the internet has become an essential critical infrastructure.

2. The threats range from IP theft, to small businesses, to elections, to even the electricity grid.

3. Cyber attacks are difficult to trace.

4. when a malware “Stuxnet” was released to damage Iran’s nuclear capability by making Iranian scientists and the government think there were internal issues.

5. Individuals are as capable as states of launching cyberattacks.

6. Malware is simple, low-cost and difficult to trace, when a cyberattack is launched by either the government or individual, there are no real consequences because of the anonymity.

Combating cyber threats:

1. According to the US' Commission on Cybersecurity,there is a need to build relationships of trust between the government and private sector.

2. Governments must maintain priority investments in technology, science, and research and development (R&D) in the cyber sector.

3. There is a need to develop artificial intelligence technologies to automatically detect cyber threats.